Auxiliary car-coupling.



No. 811,434. PATENTED JAN. 30, 1906. G. M. PENNEPAGKER & U. S. LAGON. c. w. PENNEPAGKBE, ADMINISTRATEIX or G. M. PENNEPAOICBR, DEG'D.

AUXILIARY GAR COUPLING.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.28. 1905.

9 2:144 TTOHNEY.

rns a'rnr lFFTD.

GEORGE M. PENNEPACKER AND CHARLES S. LACON, CF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA; CLARA WV. PENNEPACKER ADMINISTRATRIX OF SAID GEORGE M. PENNEPACKER, DECEASED.

AUXIILEARY CAR-COUPLING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J an. 30, 1906.

Application filed March 28, 1905. Serial No. 252,449.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, Gnonen M. PENNE- PAOKER and CHARLEs S. LACON, citizens of the United States of America, residing in the city and county of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Auxiliary Car- Couplings, of which the following is a true and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part thereof.

Our invention relates to auxiliary car-coup lings such as are used for coupling cars or engines on curves where the regular couplings cannot be made, the object of our invention being to provide an eflicient and simple device for this purpose, and especially one which can be used for making automatic coupling with the regular coupling heads, thereby greatly increasing the factor of safety to train hands.

The nature of our improvements will be best understood as described in connection with the drawings, in which we have illustrated our car-coupling device in what we be lieve to be its best and most ellicient form, and in which- Figure 1 is a front view of the supportinghead; Fig. 2, a plan view showing the auxiliary coupling device connected with the regular automatic vertical-plane coupling-head. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of our auxiliary coupling device; and Fig. 4, a plan view illustrating the mode of use of our coupler, showing it as coupling two cars on a curve of such a character that the regular coupling-heads will not interengage.

A is the ordinary standard vertical-plane coupling-head, having the guard-arm. A and jaw A the face of the head lying within the jaw being indicated at A B B, Fig. 4, indicate the cars to which the regular coupling-heads are attached.

C C designate what we call the supportinghead of our coupler, being the part or head which is adapted to interengage with and be supported by a standard coupling-head. This supportinghead, as shown, is formed with a jaw or interengagingpart D, which lies within and engages with the closed jaw of the ordinary coupler and is provided with wedgelike extensions (indicated at D and D by which when the jaw is dropped into a closed coupler it forms awedging engagement therewith, as shown in Fig. 2 The arrangement and disposition of these wedging portions, as shown in Figs. 1, 2, and. 3, is adapted for what we believe to be the best results, our primary intention being that the wedging engagement should. be with the tapered lug D on the guard-arm A and the point of the jaw A resting approximately against the point D of the head D; but as, owing to wear and irregularities of construction, this cannot always be secured we find it advisable to provide in addition the wedging-lug D which insures the support of the head in the standard coupler even when contact is not made with the point of the jaw A It will be seen that the support is practically a pivotal one on the top of the standard coupling-head,the substantially horizontal position of the supporting-head and its connections being secured by the impingement of the lower edge D of the head D against the face A of the standard coupler or by the similar impingement of the flange D of the supporting-head against the lower part of the outer face of the jaw A The interengaged or coupling portion of the supporting-head has formed on or attached to it a bufling and guiding face or plate, (indicated at E.) By preference the head and bufling-plate are made in one casting, and we have indicated at D the lines of merger of the interengaging part with the face D of the head and at D the rear projection of the head, which extends upwardly in behind the jaw A when in closed position. The bufling head or plateE has, by preference, a curved outline, as shown, terminating in outwardly-flared portions E E", which serve to limit the movement of the coupling-head to be described, a pivot-hole E being situated near the interengagcd portions of the supporting-head.

To the supporting-head we secure a coupling-head of such form and construction that 1t is adapted to make automatic coupling with the standard vertical-plane coupler, and this coupling-head we secure to the supporting-head in such manner that it will be at once laterally adjustable thereon and pivotally or angularly adj ustable-that is, so that it can be moved from side to side and set in the proper angular position to make coupling with a standard head. By preference we accomplish this by the use of links F F, which should be formed with their inner ends slotted, as shown at F F, and secured to the coupling-head above and below the plate E by a pivot-pin G, passing through the hole E in the head and the slotted holes F in the links. The links are also provided with pivot-holes F F at their free ends and coupled to the auxiliary automatic couplinghead H by a pivot-pin G, the head H being provided with a jaw portion H, which by preference we make a part of the same casting as the head because the head H and jaw H, having the standard conformation of the vertical -plane coupler, will make an automatic coupling with such a coupler without requiring that its jaw H should be pivotally connected with the head.

The guiding and bufiing plate E is, by preference, slightly canted upward from the interengaging parts of the supporting-head, this and the general conformation of the interengaging parts, as shown and described, insuring that the auxiliary coupling-head H, which is supported on the head and plate E, will lie practically in the normal vertical plane of the train-couplers.

In operation the supporting-head C has its interengaging parts dropped into a closed head A, as shown in Fig. 2, and forms a tight wedging fit with the jaw and coupling-head supporting the plate E and the auxiliary coupling-head in direct horizontal alinement with the train coupling-head. The links are then turned and the head H angularly adjusted on the links so as to bring the headinto proper coupling relationship with the coupling with which it is intended it should unite, and then by abutting the coupling-head and auxiliary head together an automatic coupling is effected, the force of the bufiing blow being taken up on the bufiing-plate E, the slotting of the holes F in the links being to remove the bufling shocks from the pivotpins and insure that they should be taken up on the buffer-plate. When it is desired to remove the auxiliary coupling device, it is only necessary to unlock and open the aw A when the supporting-head and its attachments will at once fall downward.

Having now described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. An auxiliary coupling for cars having in combination a supporting-head adapted to engage with and rest on an automatic vertical plane coupling head, said supporting head having a laterally-extending buffer-surface, in combination with a coupling-head adapted to couple automatically with the standard vertical plane coupler, and means for securing the coupling-head to the supporting-head with freedom for both lateral and angular adjustment, said coupling-head being arranged in all positions to contact with the buffer-surface on the supportinghead.

2. An auxiliary coupling for cars having in combination a supporting-head adapted to engage with and rest upon an automatic vertical plane coupling head, in combination with a coupling-head adapted to couple automatically with the standard vertical-plane coupler, links pivotally connected to the supporting-head and to the coupler-head and a buffer secured or formed on the supportinghead and against which the buifing strains on the coupler-head are directly taken up in all positions of said head.

3. An auxiliary coupler having a supporting-head adapted to engage with a verticalplane coupler, and formed with a tapered enlargement or enlargements on its jaw or interengaged portion D, to secure a wedging engagement with a closed coupler.

4. An auxiliary coupler having a supporting-head adapted to engage with a verticalplane coupler and formed with tapered enlargements D, D on its jaw or interengaged portion D, to secure a wedging engagement with a closed coupler.

5. An auxiliary coupler having a supporting-head adapted to engage with a verticalplane coupler and formed or provided with a bufiing and guide plate E, extending from it in a substantially horizontal plane, in combination with links F, F, pivoted to the sup-- porting-head above and below plate E, and a coupling-head adapted to automatically engage with a standard coupler pivoted on the free ends of the links in front of plate E.

GEORGE M. PENNEPACKER. CHARLES S. LACON.

Witnesses:

JOHN F. OULIN, LOUIS L. JUDGE. 

